Golden Week

So Golden Week has come and gone. This year it feel on May 3rd-6th, although one of th days that is considered being part of the golden week was on April 29th. Most of the days also fell on a weekend so it shorten our week too :(

Anyways, my plan for the week was to spend it with Asami and her family in their home town in Niigata and then the last day back home...things didn't turn out that way.

I was supposed to leave Friday night and meet up with Asami in Niigata City and come back to my town Monday morning so i can go to the Koinobori Festival or better known as Children's Day.

But plans changed as they always do. Asami had trouble with her latest project and was hoping to finish it by Friday but she wasn't able to. So I decided that I should still visit her family since I haven't yet. Also her brother Mitsuyuki just got married to his long time girlfriend that I met the first time I came to Japan, Naoko.

It was great to see them again and the rest of her family. I finally got to meet the family dog, Milo, a long haired dachshund. Asami's mom, Sachiko, made a great homecook dinner and breakfast. We went to an onsen w/a beach view and then went down to the beach afterwards. After lunch we headed to Sachiko-san's home town. A farming town that still looks like the pictures i took 6 years ago. Sachiko-san and Mitsuyuki picked natural herbs and made some tempura. I got to see a few of the relatives from last time and they all still call me Ume.
oh and one of her uncle's loves me and wants me to teach in Niigata (and does not approve of Ahmed since the uncle LUVS to drink and he's a pig farmer).

So i brought over a lot of omiyagi (gifts) from Gunma since its the thing you here in Japan and i like doing it. In return, the family gave me omiyagi too. From the grandpa, since he learned the i do pottery too, some of his pottery. From the cousin who gave me the name Ume, a picnic bag and a Miffy fork and spoon. And from the uncle, a big Niigata sake bottle.

The next day we went to the mountains and another onsen ^_^...they found out i liked them and were impressed on how i can stand the heat of them when they hardly can.

When i had to leave after my 2nd day there, Sachiko-san seemed to get really motherly toward me. She hugged me really tight and warned me not to get on the wrong train. It was really sweet.^_^

I got home on time to go to the Koinobori(Carp Streamer) Festival or Children's Day. I brought my friend from Ota, a part of Gunma, to come since her plans fell too. My friend, Leslie, is tons of fun and is also the person who got Hideki's sister (she notice that they both act the same).

The Koinobori Matsuri was really big, there was tons of people there and i was shocked. Many kids stared at us (i stopped getting stares since all the kids in my town knows who i am). We actually had traffic in town!

The whole weekend it was nice, sunny and hot (in the low 80's) and then the day of the festival, rain...well, halfway through the festival. The rest of the day we hooked up w/the others (Rebecca from Ueno Village and Heather from Maebashi City) to climb through the caves in Ueno where Leslie pointed out a very phallic looking rock.

The last day i spent cleaning and relaxing with Hideki. It was a nice long weekend and i loved the fact that we only had 3 days of school ^^